Morning commuters wearing masks crowd the platform at the Sindorim subway station in Seoul on April 28, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government will carry out emergency checks on the congestion and safety of subway stations following the deadly Itaewon tragedy.
The city announced these plans on Wednesday during an administrative audit by the Seoul City Council’s Transportation Committee.
“The city and Seoul Metro (the operator of the Seoul subway system) will conduct joint inspections on subway stations with severe congestion, and bring experts to the site,” said Baek Ho, head of Seoul’s city traffic department.
“Once the inspections are complete, we will carry out necessary measures like setting up additional safety facilities, securing escape routes, and installing closed-circuit cameras for monitoring.”
The city government and Seoul Metro said that among subway lines No. 1 to 8, the highest number of people flocked to Gangnam Station (141,158 people) each day between January and September, followed by Jamsil (130,050 people), Hongdae (113,316 people), Sillim (107,301 people) and Guro Digital Complex (98,775 people) stations.
Sindorim Station had a notoriously high congestion rate of 85,208 passengers each day for subway line No. 2 only, followed by Sadang (71,467 people, line No. 2 only) and Jongno 3-ga (44,289 people, line No. 1 only) stations.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
